Biddeford, Maine mayor calls ICE agents’ lack of body cameras ‘unacceptable’ after agent fatally shoots man there
The mayor of Biddeford, Maine, said Wednesday that it’s “totally unacceptable” for federal immigration agents to operate without body cameras after one such agent fatally shot a man in his city on Monday.
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“A central issue in this incident has become the lack of body cameras on those agents,” Liam LaFountain said in a statement posted to Facebook. “That is totally unacceptable. I know that both [Maine] Senator [Susan] Collins and [Maine] Senator [Angus] King are forcefully pressing that issue with DHS Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin.”
LaFountain also said Collins, a Republican seeking reelection, called him Tuesday to alert him that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been instructed to “halt their traffic stops.”
Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, the 26-year-old Colombian national killed on Monday morning, was in a vehicle that ICE agents tried to pull over.
LaFountain said he appreciated Collins’s call and wants the traffic stop “ban to be permanent, not a temporary public relations move by ICE.”
President Trump, however, said Wednesday morning via Truth Social that “we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!”
Trump said Democrats “would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch.”
A DHS spokesperson said earlier this week that a migrant living in the country illegally had departed a Biddeford residence “in a vehicle” on Monday morning.
“ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop,” the spokesperson said. “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”
The agent hasn’t been named.
Guerrero’s family and immigration advocates have said he had legal authorization to work in the US, and that he worked mornings cleaning a veterinary clinic before switching to food delivery after his shift was over, hoping to provide educational opportunities for his 3-year-old daughter.
While federal officials said ICE agents were trying to serve a deportation order, King’s office said they weren’t targeting Guerrero but were looking for someone else.
On Wednesday, a DHS spokesperson said Guerrero “illegally entered the United States on September 1, 2023, via the southern border and was released into the country under the Biden Administration. To be clear, work authorization does NOT confer legal status.”
LaFountain, meanwhile, doubled down on his call for a permanent ban on ICE traffic stops during an appearance Wednesday on CNN.
“They need to stop, and it can’t be temporary,” LaFountain told the network.
Also Wednesday, Governor Janet Mills sent a letter to Maine’s congressional delegation stating that ICE must be disbanded unless significant changes are made to its operations.
“Before more families are robbed of a loved one, this violence has to end,” Mills wrote. “Before one more community is robbed of its peace and security, this has to end. … Before the fragile American dream memorialized on hopeful parchment two and a half centuries ago is altogether abandoned, this has to end.”
Mills, a Democrat, added that “ICE needs to be fundamentally reformed, and if not, then it is time to abolish it.”
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Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
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